I read the book trilogy in about a week while the first movie was being filmed. I really enjoyed the first book, found the second one to be decent and thought the third book to drag on endlessly with a happy ending randomly tacked on as an epilogue. I still plan on seeing all the movies since I am curious about what will be done with them and I love Jennifer Lawrence. Even though I liked the first book more than the second one, I found myself enjoying watching the second movie more than the first one.
When I finished watching the first movie, I thought most of the major plot points were hit upon, but something was missing. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was very similar to how I felt after watching the first two Harry Potter movies. It was more concerned about fitting in the plot points rather than creating a fun movie to watch. I think this one captured the spirit of the book, but also made it really fun to watch too. It could also help that I didn’t recall too much about the books. While events happened in the movie, I remembered them from the book, but it was also nice to not know exactly what was going to happen next.
As for the movie itself, Jennifer Lawrence was excellent as usual. She plays the pissed off girl that really hates the government and loves her friends and family. I felt the movie did a better job with showing her conflicted feelings for Peeta when she “loves” him and actually cares for him. Donald Sutherland continues to do an awesome job as being slimy President Snow. I did miss seeing Woody Harrelson as Haymitch since his role was so small in this movie.
When reading the book, I was worried about it repeating too much with another games for them to compete in. That might be a concern for those that haven’t read the books, but it is handled in a way that doesn’t feel repetitive. We were introduced to a lot of people very quickly, but you get to know and care about them enough in a short period of time. I thought the movie did a great job of making everything before the games interesting and making me want to watch more of that, but when it finally did go into the games, I wanted to spend more time there. It did make the movie long, but I enjoyed all of it.
The movie also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, which made me actually want to watch the third and fourth movies. I am not sure how I feel about the last book being split up into two movies. It wasn’t like the book was super long. I do have hope that the director of this second movie is also directing the last two movies so I think I might enjoy watching them.
Rating: B+
Source:
http://www.vhcorner.com/2013/12/28/the-hunger-games-catching-fire/